The relationship between Church and State has been turbulent since Henry VIII decided to split from the Roman Catholic church and created the Church of England. A series of Acts tried to establish a form of religious orthodoxy and made it a legal obligation for everyone to go to church.
It was not until the Emancipation Act of 1829 that legislation restricting the freedom of Catholics was removed.
Yet there has still been confusion over whether Tony Blair would have been allowed to convert to Catholicism while prime minister.
This stems from clauses in the Emancipation Act, which gave Roman Catholics full civil rights but said that no Catholic adviser to the monarch could hold civil or military office.
Constitutional experts argue that this no longer applies because there have been countless Catholics who have held positions of political power and advised the Queen.
They say that there only four laws relating to the role of the Prime Minister and none refers to faith.
Catholics are not allowed to become monarch.
Also, under the Act of Settlement, introduced in 1701, the King or Queen cannot be married to a Catholic, so anyone in the line of succession who wishes to convert or to marry a Catholic must give up his or her place.
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